Well-known stories

Season’s greetings!

Between food and Doctor Who I watched a couple recent Disney movies for the first time through the medium of them being on the TV.

The Princess And The Frog is okay, and cartoon New Orleans is rather weird, but the villain’s motivation is a bit weak and the thing with the firefly is just odd. Referencing the original story as an existing thing is a nice idea. (Of course, an accurate adaptation takes about three minutes, and the film includes that too.)

Tangled - I can see why it gets the geek love. Takes advantage of CG to do the big action, Shrek-ly comments on Disney fairytales throughout (the pirates in particular could be straight out of that side) and has an awesome horse. Also pretty thoroughly dismantles the original story of Rapunzel.

The BBC’s Atlantis is gearing up for its first big finale - a show about a modern guy dropping into the time of legends and finding he can’t generally rely on the legends to help him solve the weekly threats. (Although he also totally blanks tricks from the stories that someone else then brings in and that do work. Which is less good.)

The Doctor Who special is about being in a story you know the end of as well.

So, how to deal with well-known storylines where it would be perfectly fair for characters to know them as well as players? Of course, observing changes things...